The 10 costliest and 10 cheapest cities for mortgagees

Costs for American residents who didn't hold a mortgage also rose during the decade, but at a slower pace, up 10.5 percent after factoring out inflation, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau analysis.

The national median monthly housing cost in 2000 for homeowners who had a mortgage -- and that encompasses 70 percent of all homeowners -- was $1,088, up from $940 a month in 1990. (The figures are calculated in 2000 dollars.)

Despite the hike, the family budget wasn't all that worse off in 2000. Homeowners with a mortgage were paying a median 21.7 percent of their income on housing, up just 3 percent from 1990. The 2000 figures were calculated before the long fall in interest rates that in June dropped mortgage rates to their lowest level in 45 years.

Americans who didn't have a mortgage on their home paid just $295 a month for housing, up from $267 in 1990. But the number of those homeowners was dwindling; in 1990 and 1980, 35 percent of homeowners held no mortgage, in 1970, 39 percent, and in 1960, 42 percent owned their houses free and clear.

The census department said the decrease is tied to the rise in home-equity lending, as homeowners who had paid off their mortgages tapped their home's value to fund renovations, pay off other debts or put children through school.

Homeowners age 35 to 44 have the highest monthly housing costs, if they have a mortgage, at $1,158. Costs gradually fall with age after that, with homeowners 75 and older paying a median $814 in monthly housing expenses.

Broken down by race, Asian householders with a mortgage in 2000 had median monthly costs of $1,540, far above the national median of $1,088 for all homeowners. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Island householders, those households checking two or more races on the census form and non-Hispanic white household also reported medians above the national figure ($1,261, $1,137 and $1,095, respectively).

Monthly homeowner costs were lowest for American Indians and Alaska natives ($879) and blacks or African Americans ($937). Median homeowner costs for Hispanic or Latino householders with a mortgage were $1,061.

The high homeowner costs for Asian and native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander households were blamed on the fact that those two groups are concentrated in California and Hawaii, two states with very high homeowner costs and housing values for units with a mortgage.

Monthly housing costs were highest in Hawaii, with a median of $1,636. Other high-cost states included New Jersey, at $1,560, California, $1,478, Connecticut, $1,426, and New York, $1,357.

The cost of housing was cheapest in West Virginia, $713, Arkansas, $737, Mississippi, $752, Oklahoma, $764, and Alabama, Kentucky and Louisiana, all at $816.

Costliest cities

Here are the 10 costliest U.S. cities, with populations over 100,000, for mortgage-paying homeowners:

Stamford, Conn. $2,203

Sunnyvale, Calif. $2,051

Honolulu $2,043

San Jose, Calif. $1,936

Glendale, Calif. $1,936

Thousand Oaks, Calif. $1,916

Yonkers, N.Y. $1,906

Irvine, Calif. $1,897

Fremont, Calif. $1,896

Cambridge, Mass. $1,896

These 10 cities demanded the highest monthly payments from homeowners without mortgages:

Yonkers, N.Y. $704

Stamford, Conn. $682

Paterson, N.J. $615

Jersey City, N.J. $569

Naperville, Ill. $540

Cambridge, Mass. $526

Coral Springs, Fla. $521

New Haven, Conn. $516

Plano, Texas $513

Elizabeth, N.J. $512

And the least expensive

The cheapest cities for homeowners with a mortgage:

Flint, Mich. $640

Evansville, Ind. $698

Springfield, Mo. $699

South Bend, Ind. $708

Waco, Texas $724

Birmingham, Ala. $730

Kansas City, Kan. $731

Fort Wayne, Ind. $732

Shreveport, La. $747

Abilene, Texas $749

And if you were a homeowner with no mortgage, these cities offered the lowest costs in 2000:

The census data was collected for owner-occupied one-family houses on less than 10 acres with no business or commercial establishment on the property. Census 2000 counted 55.2 million of these units, almost 80 percent of the total owner-occupied housing inventory.

Steve
Kerch

Steve Kerch is assistant managing editor of MarketWatch in Chicago. Follow him on Twitter @PFBoss.

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